presidency was a conservative court that invented constitutional rights for big corporations and the direct result of that was that all of the new deal programs that he and the public wanted were struck down by the supreme court. and roosevelt hated that, as you can imagine. >> and what did he do as a consequence? he basically tried to do a hostile takeover of the supreme court. >> he did. he threatened the supreme court with adding new members and he went to congress and he said i control congress. there's nothing in the constitution -- >> by adding new members, expanding the size from nine to what? >> exactly. he was going to add four people, take it up to 13. and the reason is if the constitution says you have to have a supreme court and people have life tenure but doesn't say anything about how many, the number nine was invented by congress. >> that didn't happen but among the justices he appointed were the four that the write about. who were they? >> the first was hugo black who was a fascinating guy. a cue clux klansman who had become a clklam memben member.